METHODS IN GEOGRAPHY. 



Lura L. Perrine, A. B., 

Instructor in Geography and Geology, State Normal School, 
VALLEY CITY, N. D. 



Valley City, N. D. 
W. F. DuVALL, PRINTER. 
1903. 



METHODS IN GEOGRAPHY. 



Lura L. Perrine, A. B., 

Instructor in Geography and Geology, State Normal School, 
VALLEY CITY, N. D. 



Valley City, N. D. 
W. F. DuVALL, PRINTER. 
1903. 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

JUN 5 1903 

Copyright Entry 

CLASS O- XXc. No 

COPY B. 



&l 



COPYRIGHT, 1903. BY LURA L. PERRINE. 



ifcljo&B in (gnigrapljg. 



1. DEFINITION. 



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GEOGRAPHY (Gr, . U ? the earth and y p <X<j> > 

a description, derived from yCtK&tw^ to write). Therefore the root 
meaning of Geography is a description of the earth. 

"Geography treats of the earth as the home of man". — Alex Fiye. 

"Geography is a practical study of man's habitat and its relation to him" 
— Report of Committee of Fifteen, p. 26. 

"Geography is a part of our every-day life, not a mere learning of places, 
but a living reality". — Dr. Spencer Trotter. 

"Geography may be held to be the description of the earth in relation to 
man, in all the bearings of that relationship". — Dr. Hugh Robert Mills, of 
London. F. R. G. S. 

"Geography is a univeral study, a band that binds many other studies 
into a living whole. It is the central study to which other studies must 
necessarily gravitate, because it is the study of the earth, and the earth is the 
theater of all human thought and action". — Dr. S. Trotter. 

"Geography is difficult to define on account of its intimate relations and 
intergradations with geology, meteorology, zoology, botany, history, politics, 
etc., It is difficult therefore to name the limit in dealing with these sciences 
in geography". — Report of Committee of Ten. 

2. SCOPE. 

"Geography is not a simple science, but a collection of sciences, levied 
upon to describe the earth as the dwelling place of man, and to explain some- 
thing of its more prominent features". "About one-fourth of this material 
relates to geography strictly; about one-half to the inhabitants, their manners, 
customs, institutions, industries, productions, and the remaining one-fourth to 



items drawn from the sciences of minerology, meteorology, botany, zoology 
and astronomy". — Com. of Fifteen, p. 26. 

Geography does not attempt detailed investigations, but it accepts from 
the sciences those facts determined by them that bear upon the well-being of 
man or that enable us to comprehend the general plan of the marvellous 
creation, wherein we form a part. 

Next to the history and experience of man himself the study of the globe 
gives the most "profound and perennial a human interest". — Opinion of 
Archibald Geikie. 

The geography of fifty years ago emphasized location of cities, capes, 
boundary lines, etc., and an abundance of map questions. Dead knowledge. 

The later geography gave vivid descriptions, abundant pictures, a clearer 
knowledge, and a greater interest; it was illustrative of facts but not stimula- 
tive of thought. Often a short-lived possession. 

The new geography emphasizes the causal notion, gives the means of 
explanation of facts generally to be learned; it gives a basis for thotful 
study. A living growing knowledge, a lasting possession. 

The second surpasses the old, because it gives an accumulation of geogra- 
phical facts in a much better way, But both fail to give true geographic 
insight and power. The causal notion must play an important part where 
ever the teaching of geography is to be stimulative of thot to any high 
degree. 

3. PLACE IN EDUCATION. 

Two principles or purposes determine the adoption of each branch of 
study into the school curriculum. Each individual study is chosen because: 
first, it gives the pupil the ability to understand his habitat and this leads to 
his mastery of the things and forces of his environment; second, it develops 
some faculty or power in the pupil and this training of the intellect, feeling or 
will, this exercise of memory, imagination, judgment or the heart gives the 
child a, fuller possession of himself and so enables him not only to render 
more valuable service to others, but to receive larger and better returns of 
service from others. 

These two principles are not antagonistic, but agree in giving to the pupil 
increased powers of mastery and this tends continually toward a richer and 
more complete life. 

In this equipment of the individual for the most successful living. Dr. 
W. T. Harris, U. S. Commissioner of Education, places the study of geogra- 
phy second only to the study of literature in importance. To realize some- 
thing of the worth of geographical study one needs only to consider the range 
of useful fundamental ideas obtained by the pupil thru this study in early life, 
and the inconveniences that would ensue to each individual should geography 
be banished from our curriculum. 



In his able article, "The Place of Geography in the Elementary Schools", 
published in the Forum for January 1902, Dr. Harris says, "For practical 
thinking the generalities of geography are exceedingly important", "more 
important than any specific notions that follow later". Here he refers to such 
general notions as the form and motions of the earth, relations in latitude and 
longitude, and fundamental ideas pertaining to relief, climate, life, etc. 

The simple idea of a round world revolving about another body brings 
to the pupiPs mind "a correction of mere sensuous observation by an 
abstract and deeply scientific train of thot". When once these ideas of 
planetary form and motions are fully grasped, there is started a wonderful 
system of inferences, which must extend thruout the life of the individual. 
With the study of the relative positions of the continents and countries must 
be acquired much of history; from the study of the formation and modifica- 
tions of physical features must arise some realizations of the important work 
of many apparently insignificant natural forces. From the study of climate 
there follows the variety and distribution of plant and animal life and the 
desirability of an interchange of products. The study of man and his in- 
dustries serves as an introduction to the elements of anthropology and 
sociology, for in man's foods, abodes and dress, his customs, occupations, 
governments and religions lies the record of his progress from individual 
slavery toward freedom. Civilization and commerce go hand in hand and 
Dr. Harris says "There is certainly nothing of more importance that the 
school gives the child — next to literature with its revelation of the feelings 
and thots of his fellows — than this matter of the division of labor and the need 
of each population on the face of the earth for the other populations, who 
contribute to it certain necessaries of life. Is there anything more produc- 
tive of kindly and hopeful feelings toward one's fellowmen, living under differ- 
ent governments and separated by vast distances than this study which finds 
each useful to the industrial whole?" 

Elementary education has always included some instruction in geography. 
In the middle ages geography was known as "geometry" and thruout this 
period history was not separated from geography. — Com, of Fifteen, p. 26. 

"What educative value there is in geology, meteorology, zoology, 
botany, ethnology, economics, history, and politics is to be found in the more 
profound study of geography, and to a proportionate extent in the study of its 
merest elements". — Com. of Fifteen, p. 28. 

The great educative value of geography is seen in the fact that "it makes 
possible something like accuracy in the picturing of different places and 
events, and removes a large tract of superstition from the mind". One's 
stock of geographical knowledge is constantly in requisition, if we form cor 
rect ideas from daily reading of newspapers. Neither newspapers nor books 
can aid much in the formation of an enlightened public opinion among a 
people lacking in a knowledge of geography". — Com. of Fifteen, p. 28. 

The value of geography, as a study lies in its relations to other studies. 



The Committee of Ten declare that physical geography should embrace the 
elements of at least one-half dozen natural sciences. 

4. INTERRELATION OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 



Geography was formerly regarded as a "root-science from which all others 
branched; now we prefer to view it as the focus at which all the physical and 
historical sciences converge to throw light upon the earth as an organic 
whole". — Mill' s Hints to Teachers, p. 8. 

The function of Physiography has a unique value in mental training, being 
at once an introduction to all the sciences and a summing up of their results. 
It enables a beginner to obtain a quicker insight into any of the special 
sciences and a fuller grasp of it, while at the same time a student versed in 
any one special science is enabled to appreciate far more fully than an un- 
versed one its relation to all others, and to the universe. — Dr. Mill's "Realm of 
Nature" , p. 13. 

"Physics or Natural Philosophy in a sense includes every other branch 
of physical science, altho portions of biology and geography extend beyond its 
limits". — Dr. Mill. 

According to Dr. Mill's idea the above sciences are not to be considered 
as blocks covering the whole field of nature, but rather as main lines of travel 
from the world's capital, whose branches interlace intricately everywhere 
thruout the whole domain of science. 

The study of geography must thus increasingly demand a practical 
acquaintance with many sciences and modes of thot and expression, simply 
with an object of collecting their results and applying them to the clear under- 
standing of the earth viewed as a suitable home for civilized man. — Mill' s 
Hints, p. 19. 

5. DIVISIONS OF GEOGRAPHY. 

Dr. H. R. Mill declares (Hints p. 7.) that "Geography is one subject and 
to be effective must be treated as such. The attempt to read it apart into the 
isolated departments of mathematical, physical, political, historical, and 
commercial geography is thoroly unsatisfactory". To show the content of 
geography and the interrelation of its parts Dr. Mill uses the following 
pyramid: (Mill's Hints, p. 10.) 



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"Commercial motives consolidate national life, accentuate racial differ- 
ences, redistribute animals and plants, modify physical conditions, start 
investigations into the nature of the earth, and even invade the solid ground- 
work of mathematics with the practical counsels of common sense". — Mill's 
Hints, p. 16. 

The earth may be regarded as a great somewhat irregular solid mass, 
the geosphere. bounded by a stiffer outer crust, the lithosphere or rock-sphere; 
surrounded by a heavy liquid envelope, the hydrosphere: and this, in turn, 
is enveloped by a thin gaseous easily-disturbed atmosphere. 

With this idea in mind, we find the following sub-divisions of geography 
riven by Prof. C. W. Hall in his General Geology Syllabus, p. 6. 

. . f The study of the atmosphere with considerations 

Meteorology J J 

j as to its past and future condition. 



The study of the hydrosphere, the liquid layer, 

resting in the hollows of the geosphere or solid 
Oceanography .. J b & 

earth. More broadly it also considers the waters 

in the reservoirs which supply the seas. 

I That study of the geosphere, which involves a 
Physiography _ _ ^ rational investigation of the land areas of the 
i globe. 



6. ORDER OF GEOGRAPHIC SUBJECTS, 

"The natural order of geographic subjects in the school curriculum 
seems, therefore, to be the following: 

1. Elementary Geography, a broad treatment of the earth and its in- 
habitants and institutions, to be pursued in the primary, intermediate, and 
lower grammar grades. 

2. Physical Geography, a more special but still broad treatment of the 
physical features of the earth, atmosphere and ocean, and of the forms of 
life and their physical relations, to be pursued by the later grammar grades. 

3. Physiography, a more advanced treatment of our physical environ- 
ment, in which the agencies and processes involved, the origin, development, 
and decadence of the forms presented, and the significance of the features of 
the earth's face are the leading themes, to be pursued in the later high school 
or'early college years. 

4. Meteorology, a specialized study of atmospheric phenomena, to be 
offered by schools, that are prepared to do so properly, as an elective in the 
later high school years. 

5. Geology, a study of the earth's structure and its past history, to be 



offered by schools prepared to do so properly, as an elective in the last year 
of the high school course. — Com. of Ten, p. 209. 

Professor Edwin J. Houston, in a Minority Report favors the following 
order in the curriculum: (1) Elementary Geography which is an Elementary 
Physical Geography; (2) Descriptive Geography; (3) Mathematical Geogra- 
phy; (4) Political Geography; (5) Physical Geography (proper); and in this 
he favors the order of topics as given in the work of Professor Arnold Guyot. 

Political Geography hinges directly upon Physical Geography and the 
two are essential elements in one great system. — Opinion of Dr. S. Trotter. 

r. THE FACULTIES EMPLOYED IN GEOGRAPHY. 

Among the many mental faculties exercised by this study the three most 
worthy of consideration, aside from those of memory and expression are, viz; 

(1) The powers of observation. 

(2) The powers of scientific imagination. 

(3) The powers of reasoning. 

"The cultivation of the powers of observation is necessary to clear, 
accurate, and realistic fundamental ideas and modes of thot". (Com. of Ten 
p. 215). Thus only can the scientific imagination from clear impressions of 
of things seen, construct clear images of the unseen and give to the mind a 
representation of the larger portion of geographical matter. "Both clearness 
of observation and strength of imagination are essential as a basis for safe 
reasoning". — Com. of Ten p. 215. 

Dr. Geikie declares that geography offers a cure for what he considers 
"a radical defect in our educational method, namely: The want of any 
effective discipline in habits of observation". — Teachings of Geography, p. VI. 

(Read Dr. Trotter's and Dr. Mill's statements.) 

Alexander Winchell says, "Each one of the natural sciences elicits into 
activity sooner or later every power of the human mind, and thus confers a 
culture which is symmetrical and complete. No such statement can be made 
of the studies by tradition called humanistic". 

Elementary physical . geography dealing with the fundamental ideas 
derived from many natural sciences must contribute to this symmetrical 
mental culture, proportionately fry the number and kind of faculties employed. 

8. TREATMENT OF GEOGRAPHY IN RELATION TO MENTAL 

DISCIPLINE. 

It is absolutely essential to the effective arrangement and conduct of 
the work that the teacher hold continually in mind the mental powers to be 
developed. The teacher must also hold clear and definite views of the 
cultural purposes of the entire work, to insure not only the proper treatment of 



the subjects in geography, but a more ready obviating of the difficulties 
generally encountered by the students. 

For the best training of the powers of observation, imagination and rea- 
soning the Committee of Ten (p. 215) suggest the following topics as ready 
resources: 

A. For the Cultivation of the Observational Powers. 

(1) Study of surface forms, such as hills, valleys, plains, plateaus, 
streams, lakes, shores and all similar phenomena within the pupil's horizon. 
These may be approached as already indicated by observations on miniature 
forms of like nature, such as may be found in gutters, gullies, ravines, 
brooklets, ponds, bottoms, etc. 

(2) Observations upon temperature and its relations to the direction of 
the sun's rays, the apparent motion of the heavenly bodies, as their circling 
around the poles, the rising and setting of some stars and not of others, the 
shifting north and south of the sun and moon, etc. 

(3) Movements of the atmosphere and their effects, rain and its effects, 
snow and its effects, fogs, clouds, etc. 

(4) Plant life aud its dependence upon heat, moisture, sunlight, etc., 
the influence of soil, slope, etc. 

(5) Observations of a similar nature upon animal life. 

(6) Observations upon man, in the family, in educational, church, 
social and business organizations, in city and town organizations; and so on 
up toward the larger human organizations and the forms of government. So 
also observations on city and town plats, with their street systems, railways, 
canals, harbors, their wards, school districts, etc. 

B. Under Work Involving the Culture of the Imagination Will Fall 
the Formation of Concepts of All the Larger Features of Geo- 
graphy, and of All Features Beyond the Range of Observa- 
tions, as 

(1) The river basins, the great relief systems, the continental divisions 
and subdivisions, the ocean bottoms, the distribution of land and water, and 
in a less pronounced way, the picturing of all geographical features not 
actually observed. 

(2) Modifications of apparent motions due to imagined changes of 
position of the observer on the earth's surface, such as a position at the poles, 
at the equator, on different parallels, etc. 

(3) Distribution of the meteorological agencies over the gjobe, as mois- 
ture, winds, climate, the mental picturing of the great wind movements, the 
cyclonic circulation, the zones, etc. 

(4) Distribution of plant life, developed in the form of a mental picture 
in its relations to the earth's surface, to land and water, to altitude and 
climatic condition, as distinguished from a mere memorizing of the facts of 
distribution without such a pictorial conception. 



II 

(5) Distribution of animal life in like manner. 

(6) Distribution of races of men, forms of governments, natural terri- 
tory, etc. 

C. The Foregoing Lists of Topics Furnish the Material for the Cul- 
ture of the Reasoning Powers, If the Questions of Causes and 
Agencies Is Raised In Connection with Each Topic. 

Why do the several features take the form they do? By what agencies 
were they caused and why did these agencies work in such ways? How did 
these forms originate? What are the causes of the wind, the clouds, the 
changes of the temperature? Why are plants and animals distributed as they 
are? Why are these cities located as they are? Why are these large, and 
these small? And so on, ad libitum. — Com. of Ten, pp 215-116. 

The Committee of Ten do not advise any dissociation of the processes 
employed in the specific development of these great mental powers in actual 
practice, but they urge upon teachers the necessity ot clearly comprehending 
what topics are especially fitted to develop certain mental powers and that the 
aim shall constantly be the acquisition of increased mental power as well 
as the mastery of the subject matter. 

9. THE ORDER OF TREATMENT. 

"The education of every child is the history of the entire race" {Dr. 
Trotter, p. 3). In other words "The genesis of knowledge in the individual 
must follow the same course as the genesis of knowledge in the race". 

"In each branch of instruction we should proceed from the empirical to 
the rational. Science is organized knowledge, and before knowledge can be 
organized, some of it must first be possessed. Every study, therefore, should 
have a purely experimental introduction". 

Habits of observing, reflecting and recording should be acquired in early 
childhood, for all mental habits which the adult student will surely need 
begin to be formed in the child's mind before the age of fourteen. 

The Committee of Ten advise that the systematic development of the 
three leading classes of mental faculties should largely control the arrange- 
ment of the work in geography. Their geographical scheme reduced to the 
briefest form is; "first, see; next, reproduce; then study the reproductions of 
others, and, meanwhile, ponder and reason on all". — Com. of Ten, p. 211. 

The Conference of Geography were uniformly decided in the opinion that 
the subject should be treated in the same manner "for pupils who are 
going to college, for those who are going to a scientific school and for those 
who presumably are going to neither". — Com. of Ten, p. 1 7 . 

This order of treatment, based upon mental processes is a matter of 
highest importance to all: 

I. Observational Geography. This should precede all other forms of 



geographical study, for it prepares the way for them, since its object is: [1] 
to develop the power and habit of geographic observation; [2] to give pupils 
true and vivid basal ideas, and [3] to arouse the spirit of inquiry and a thirst 
for geographical knowledge. This work should begin with observation of 
those features lying nearest pupils, since they are within reach of their direct 
study and ready comprehension; in the country it will be natural features; in 
*own, artificial features largely. It is better to ignore neither class of objects 
and to seek for type ideas, which characterize other localities, thus giving the 
power to the pupils of forming correct ideas of things yet unseen. Observe 
especially the agencies producing surface changes, as winds, rain, thawing, 
etc. 

II. Representative Geography. After observation should come repro- 
duction in form of descriptions, sketches, maps, models, etc. "The great end 
of education is to create productive ability. Every attempt to reproduce objects 
seen, by verbal description, by sketch or map, reacts upon the observational 
work, stimulating to a greater clearness.and definiteness in reproduction, and a 
marked advance in mental power is made". Pupils are thus led to realize 
the meaning of various modes of expression and they gain in the power to read 
with ease and understanding the descriptions and maps that become later in 
the study the great medium of information. 

"The power of understanding a map and getting from it all the informa- 
tion it can afford, is an acquisition which lies at the basis of all sound geo- 
graphical progress". — Archibald Geikie in Teachings of Geography, p. 10. Dr. 
Geikie also declares -that a- large proportion of even the educated part of any 
community have only a limited and imperfect conception of the full meaning 
and uses of a map. He considers the ability to comprehend a map, to master 
a map. as necessary to any pupil for promotion. 

III. Derivative or Descriptive Geography. The study not of the earth 
itself bi t of a description of the earth's surface. This must follow the gaining 
o; true and vivid basal ideas by observation and the acquiring by reproduction 
of a realistic sense of the meaning ..of maps and the ability to read maps 
readily. We cannot travel far, hence we must depend upon the descriptions 
of others. While greatest attention may now be given to descriptive geogra- 
phy, theobservational and reproductive work should be continued, making 
more complete and vivid the new ideas'gained. It is a common mistake to 
neglect these. 

IV. Rational Geography.. The please of the subject that leads directly 
into the reasons of things is "the soul of the science". Pupils are to be taught 
to reason concerning phenomena, not to memorize a stated reason. The work 
must be adapted to the capacities of pupils. The introduction of the rational 
element, which gives life- to all geography requires skill and discretion on the 
part of the teacher. 

The relation of cause and effect is the fundamental law of nature; cause 
must be sought, effect is revealed everywhere. There is an adequate cause 
for e/erything as it exists to-day. The study of facts implies a search immedi- 



ately for their meaning. The objection sometimes offered against this 
introduction of the causal notion, everywhere in the study, on the ground 
that it consumes time for children to reason, is about as sensible as an ob- 
jection to the laying of foundations broad and deep and firm for towering 
ten story blocks in our cities. Let the search for the cause become habitual 
in the study, and the foundation is already laid not only for successful prose- 
cution of geography and all the natural sciences, but for more rapid and effec- 
tive work in every department of knowledge. 

This order of treatment, if carefully and thoroly carried out, should give 
to the pupil power in the use of the scientific method. Compared to this the 
knowledge of so-calied scientific facts is unimportant. There is no "I think" 
or "about" in scientific method. Only such expressions as "I know" "with 
probable error,' or "there is no information" are allowable. Specula- 
tion has its place, but is strictly quarantined from 'the realm of scientific 
facts. "The two guardians of thot in science are accuracy and 
definiteness". Accuracy is always to be striven for tho it can never be 
attained. Definiteness in thot and description does not implv perfect 
accuracy in observation. Clearness requires definiteness. 

10. MORE IMMEDIATE OBJECTS IN THE TEACHING OF 
GEOGRAPHY. . 

Setting aside the great value of the study of geography as a means of 
securing effectual training of mental powers we primarily teach geography: 

(1) To develop in a pupil's mind a concept corresponding to the earth's 
surface. If the earth were a perfect spheroid its description would be easy 
and localization difficult, almost impossible except by latitude and longitude. 
If it were chaotic in its surface irregularities, description and localization 
would be alike difficult (vide Bad Lands). But the earth is arranged in great 
slopes, an organism not of life but for life.. The result sought then is a clear 
concept of the outline, vertical and horizontal, of the continents. 

(2) To give by this clear concept, a basis for an acquaintance with 
material nature, that shall aid in commercial and social relations with the 
rest of the world. 

(3) To aid in the future acquisitions of such knowledge as shall enrich 
the mental possessions of the pupils, giving ever-new interest to life and un- 
veiling continually a newer, fairer world. 

"We must aim to give a certain amount of information, but we should 
aim above all to give ability to gather information; in other words, we should ■ 
develop the knowledge of principles thru the knowledge of facts". — R. E. 
Dzdgs in J. of S. G., Jan. '67. 

There are special functions of geography to increase our knowledge of the 
country in which we dwell, and to trace the analogies and contrasts among the 
aspects of nature in other lands. Geography compares the continents and 



shows how their topograph/ has affeotal the distribution and development of 
the human population. Geography linked with human history notes how 
largely topography has influenced political events, how it has directed the 
migrations of people, centrifugal and centripetal; stayed or guided conquests, 
moulded national character, or given coloring to national mythology and 
literature. 

(4) To soften and restrain the harsh judgments of fellow beings dictated 
by absolute rules of human conduct; to teach mercy by a comprehension of 
the circumstances that tend to make men what they are. Geography gives 
the key to the degrading and elevating influences of structural and climatic 
environments, and its limitations also. Low and degraded human beings can 
be tolerated when we realized how they have been moulded according to great 
natural laws and without right human teaching. We reverence more those 
who by prolonged struggles have risen superior to their environments, 
whether physical, mental or moral. 

(5) To teach, via history, a comprehension of human laws and achieve- 
ments; to give higher ideals of right living; to bring to the pupil a love for the 
human race and an appreciation of one's proper value as a unit in the great 
mass of human beings. 

(6) And to the true teacher, geography is one of the most effectual 
means of bringing to the individual soul of the pupil an appreciation of the 
universal and the eternal. It is the means of leading the soul of a child early 
into the blessed light of truth. It places in the hands of a child the simple 
key, which, while unlocking the treasure houses of the present, shall become 
by a series of transformations able to give access later to still more wonderful 
store houses, impenetrable to him, who in early life has not been taught to 
use the magic key. Geography is simply a stepping stone, comparatively 
useless as an end. It is a means, by which a child is educated to become 
wide-awake, skilful, accurate, earnest, patient, sincere, loving and relirious. 

11. TIME. 

The Committee of Ten says of the present assignment of time to geogra- 
phy in primary and secondary schools that it is their judgment that more time 
is not "given the study than it merits, but that either more should be accom- 
plished or less time taken to attain it". 

The Committee of Fifteen, whose task was the correlation of studies in 
elementary schools, recommended that geography begin with oral lessons in 
the second year. In the middle of the third year the study with a text-book 
should begin and be continued, five lessons weekly, to the seventh year. 
During the seventh and eighth years three lessons per week should be given 
They also recommend recitations of fifteen minutes in length in the tirst and 
second years; of twenty minutes in length in the third and fourth years: of 



15 

twenty-five minutes in the fifth and sixth years and of thirty minutes in the 
seventh and eighth years. — Com. of Fifteen p. 66. 

This does not preclude oral lessons, conversational in form, being given 
during the first year to stimulate observation and to strengthen powers of 
verbal expression, at the very outset of school life. 

12. PRESENTATION. 

A. Miscellaneous Aids. 

Best authorities recommend that schools be supplied with the following 
aids to geography: (1) Large scale maps of their own district and state; (2) 
The best obtainable series of general maps, physical as well as political (if 
possible on a uniform scale); (3) Small globes (4 to 6 inch) for individual 
study; (4) Illustrations of various kinds in great quantities, including photo- 
graphs and lantern slides, where possible; (5) A few models, preferably of the 
home district; if not, typical models of some interesting portion of the country; 
(6) Books of reference on history, travels, natural history, etc., for the use of 
pupils and teachers; (7) A selected series of topographical maps for school 
use. To these should be added a good tsllurian, a large ordinary globe, 
preferably pendent, and a rather large blackboard globe for general 
work. These aids are to be acquired as time passes and expense will 
allow. To the above may be added colored chalks (for board use), scrap- 
books containing articles descriptive of geographical subjects, newspaper 
clippings, railway folders and maps, collections of commcn rocks and 
minerals, selected preferably from the school district. Care should be taken 
that these rocks are illustrative of weathering processes and soil production, 
not misrepresentative specimens nor curiosities. Specimens to illustrate 
elementary geological and botanical facts, and to serve as a basis for repro- 
duction work in primary grades should also be added. 

Professor R. E. Dodge says that to know how to use a map or encyclo- 
pedia or a book of reference or of travel, is far more important than to know 
what city manufactures the most fish hooks in the United States or the list of 
capes along the Atlantic seaboard. 

B. Modeling and Drawing. 

"Modeling and drawing together with other graphic methods of expression 
are fully recognized as indispensable means of aiding the imagination, intensi- 
fying thot and strengthening memory", — Com. of Ten, p. 219. 

But these means must be subordinated to the study of geography itself. 
They fail to accomplish their end and positively harm the pupil, when they 
become imitations or copies of other charts and maps. "The only use of 
modeling and drawing is to build in the mind a picture or a concept of a 
country or a continent". — Col. F. W. Parker. 

Col. Parker also says that "relief maps, profiles und pictures of relief 



maps contain a great deal more of truth to the young learner than all other 
means combined" (p. 98). Flat political maps teach little more than truth 
concerning horizontal form. Therefore, to learn outlines use drawing; to 
study relief or surface forms, use modeling, v/hether in putty, papier-mache 
or in sand. With the sand model we may also well illustrate the action of 
forces upon surface, as the erosive pov/er of water and wind upon mountain 
and plain, etc. 

I. MODELING. 

Summary of the benefits of modeling. (For discussion see Frye's Geogra- 
phy, with Sand-Modeling). 

1. "Modeling is the means of gaining concepts-of form, thru the touch, 
or the muscular sense; and by the association of these concepts with the 
corresponding sight products of light and shade, to cultivate the acquired 
judgment of form by sight. 

2. By securing attention to surrounding figures, it develops observation 
and memory of form. 

3. It is the simplest and quickest means of leading pupils to acquire 
knowledge of geographical forms from nature. 

4. Modeling the important features of the surrounding surface, lays the 
basis in a natural language for leading pupils to imagine the continents. 

5. It is the most natural means of form examination, as ability to model 
quickly and accurately from memory, may be accepted as evidence of a clear 
understanding of terms and definitions. 

Since the relief of the earth upon which all surface conditions depend, is 
but an aggregation of slopes of different lengths and degrees the following 
thots on the uses of slopes from Col. Parker's "How to Study Geography" 
will be helpful: 

1. The character of the joined slopes is the basis for the remembrance 
of all that has taken place on the land. 

2. The inclined surfaces distribute the soil, physical forces crack off, 
break, abrade, and grind up the solid rock. Under the law of gravitation, the 
sloping land distributes over its surface the ground up masses of soil. The 
upper parts of the slopes are the store-houses of soil-material for ail the sur- 
face below. 

3. The amount of rainfall depends largely upon the height and arrange- 
ment of slopes. 

4. The distribution of heat is modified by height. 

5. Drainage depends entirely upon the arrangement of land surfaces in 
slopes. Water percolating thru soil down inclined surfaces gives rise to 
vegetation, and upon vegetable life animal life depends. 

6. The upraised masses of land determine the coast line. 

The surface of the whole earth is arranged in slopes as an organism, not 
of life but for life. 

Since the surface of the earth is made up of slopes, the only way to 



17 

obtain a concept of the surface is by the study ot (1) the surrounding sur- 
faces; (2) the relief maps, both molded and printed. Hence practice in 
modeling maps in sand is especially important, and this work should be 
supplemented by clear verbal description. 

SUGGESTIONS. 

1. The real object or a correct model should always be near by for 
comparison until the pupil has formed a clear concept of the subject to be 
modeled. 

2. Lay aside the sand-modeling as soon as the pupil is able to imagine 
without its aid. 

3. It is important that the sand table be so constructed that its tray-top 
can stand inclined or horizontal. This table should be made of pine or some 
light-weight wood, well seasoned to prevent warping; it should stand about 32 
inches in height and have its tray-top attached to the ordinary top by hinges. 
This tray may be 3x4 feet in area and rimmed by 2 inch wood, lined by 
galvanized iron, preferably, so that the action of water on coast forms may 
be illustrated. A zinc-lined drawer under the top may hold the sand not in 
use. The sand should always be damp when in use, 

II. DRAWING. 

Teachers should use freely crayon and blackboard. The simplest 
illustrations may be most helpful; elaborate drawings are out of place. Col. 
Parker calls drawing the teacher's "second right arm" and urges teachers 
who draw poorly to "draw and keep on drawing" till the acquired-skill shall 
become powerful in its good influence over the mental processes of their 
pupils. A part of the wonderful power of Agassiz and Morse lay in their 
marvelous skill in illustrating their lessons. 

Encourage pupils to draw constantly, to endeavor to represent even im- 
perfectly any object in sight or thot. The value of construction lines is very 
seriously questioned. The mental product, is far better without them and the 
gaining of mental power Is our first consideration. Therefore encourage 
free-hand drawing, first on blackboard, then on paper. 

Aim first for general form (implying approximate relative dimensions). 

Train the eye to measure distances. 

Use simplest construction lines at first, if it is necessary, but discard 
them at earliest moment possible for the eye should be trained to grasp 
space relation quickly. 

Use the scale constantly in testing work, to assist the eye and to train 
the mind to be satisfied with nothing but accuracy. 

The first maps should be simple distribution maps, of mountains, of 
lowland drainage, of vegetation, of animals, of man, occupations, pasture 
lands, forests, etc. Political maps should appear much later. 

Map drawing appeals to the eye and hand and educates thot and expres- 
sion in the explanation; it serves often as a review, blending the old with 



the new. Ability to produce good maps shows real progress. Pjpils must 
learn to make good maps 'before they copy them: to feel a need for an under- 
standing of each symbol before they use it; then the children's objections to 
map drawing will vanish. 

C. Text-books. 

Text-books are needed (1) to furnish maps and other material; (2) to 
secure conciseness of definition: (3) to save time in study. 

A departure from the text-book in classes is apt to lead (1) to a con- 
suming of undue time in giving pupils what text-books give in much better 
form; (2) to a dwelling upon trivialities: (3) to a development of non-essen- 
tials; or (4) to simple entertainment — faults to be shunned persistently. 

The textbook is to be an aid, not a master. In most grades, textbooks 
are indispensible to the acquisition of precision of understanding and of 
statement on the part of the pupils. 

Make constant the practice of locating upon maps the places mentioned 
in history, travels, dailies and conversation. 

Geographical readers, if rightly used, become a wonderful stimulus to 
further progress. 

No text-book is perfect, but each new one is a help to the writer of the 
next one to come. Pupils may help to make their text-book better, when 
they realize that its scope is very limited at best. 

D. Field-work. 

It is absolutely necessary to the gaining of clear geographical concepts 
that field-work be undertaken; we must observe for ourselves the actions of 
agencies that are ever shaping and reshaping the earth's surface. From 
the study of the simplest of our tiny spring streams from the bluff, the transi- 
tion to and the understanding of the work of the mighty Father-of-waters. from 
Itaska to the Gulf, is very easy and the possession of such a river type is in- 
valuable. 

The disadvantages and dangers attendant upon field-work tho many, can 
be avoided by the skillful and thotful teacher and a definite real growth will 
be noted among the pupils, both in observational and reflective powers, and 
in a knowledge of the essential elements of topography. An increase of love 
for nature follows. 

The Committee of Ten recommend, at least one-half day per week for 
out-of-doors instruction in geography, botany, zoology and geology: also 
laboratory practice on Saturday morning for at least one and one-half hours 
("the shortest advantageous period"). — Com. of Ten, p. 50. 

In Germany the early work both in nature study and in geography is 
largely done out-of-doors. This is followed by sketching, drawing, verbal 
and written descriptions for in-door exercises. These excursions are fort- 
nightly in some schools and home geography is taught twice a week based 
upon the out-door observations and drawings. 



We must all be taught to see. Pupils can be aided by having their atten- 
tion called to objects observed enroute to and from school; to the relative 
sizes, heights and positions of objects. When undertaken earnestly and 
pursued faithfully and intelligently, out-door exercises may become more 
useful and important than in-door exercises in geography, especially in the 
lower grades. 



13. METHODS IN RECITATION ROOM. 

The most suitable time for the presentation of new ideas to the pupil is 
generally found in the recitation. 

"In no field of knowledge can anything new be appropriated unless there 
are found in the mind of the child well-grounded related thots". — Lange' s 
Apperception, p. 210. 

These mental possessions Lange terms apperceptive ideas and by apper- 
ception he means a complete assimulation of the new culture-material brought 
before the child. Apperception then is more than perception. In every act 
of apperception there is an apprehension of outer impressions modified by all 
the previously acquired knowledge of the individual. 

It is a commonly accepted fact that every individual perceives most in 
the field, with which he is best acquainted for in each act of perception he has 
been aided by his stock of related ideas, since they are the means by which 
he is enabled to grasp the new idea in its right relation and make it his own. 
There must be as many different ideas of one and the same object as there 
are observers for each has added his new perception to a varied stock of 
more or less related ideas and it has been strongly, faintly or not at all 
apperceived, depending entirely upon the wealth or poverty of the apperceiv- 
ing mind. 

The maxim "Provide for easy and thoro apperception" expresses more 
clearly a cardinal truth in pedagogy than do such watch words as "Proceed 
from the known to the unknown" "from the near to the remote", from the 
easy to the difficult" — sayings often misunderstood because they have only 
relative value. * 

"For the strong apperceiving concepts of the child are solely and alone 
the known to which the unknown is to be united, the near with reference to 
the remote, the easy leading up to the more difficult. Whatever does not 
belong to these aids to apperception remains strange to the pupil, no matter 
how near it may be to him in time and space, or how simple and easy it may 
seem; it cannot, in anyway promote the appropriation of the new". — Lange' s 
Apperception, p. 241. 

To insure then this quick and clear apperception of the new by the 
pupil in the recitation pedagogical writers declare that five formal steps must 
be regarded by the teacher. 



20 

These are called, according to Lange: 

1. Preparation (Analysis) ) ,,. _ c , , , 

-> ,-, r Vp II • n calling for careful observation. 

2. Presentation (Synthesis) \ b 

3. Combination (Association) / p _ „ ,. 

4. Recapitulation, including Abstraction (System) ( " 

5. Application (Drill) Practical realization of the result of the lesson. 
Use of universal concepts just gained. (See Lange's Apperception, p. 200 
et seq.) 

In each recitation we must cling to this order of progress "From obser- 
vation to thot. from thot to application". In the step called Preparation we 
review only those ideas already possessed by the pupil, which are included in 
the new material to be presented later. This is done not only to insure the 
right frame of mind, in which apperceptive ideas will be ready for instant 
action, but to strengthen the weak apperceptive ideas, if such exist, and in 
some cases to supply the necessary ideas for the coming lesson. 

In Presentation the new ideas, one by one, are presented slowly, clearly 
and strongly to the alert mind. 

In Combination the new is linked with the old in many ways, until their 
close relationship is grasped by the pupil. 

Under Recapitulation comes the review of both the old and the new 
material which serves to bring out more clearly the relation of all the parts 
presented. From the consideration of this array of concrete facts there 
springs into being within the pupil's consciousness by a process of 
Abstraction a new concept, a general truth. This is primarily a definition- 
discovering process. 

In Application (Drill) the new concept is tested, and fixed in the mind by 
the repeated application of the concept to the concrete. This application of 
universal concepts does not often come of itself, it must be taught and 
practiced until the pupil can use his knowledge authoritatively. Lange, in 
speaking of the importance of this drill in use of universal concepts, ssys "It 
must enable the pupil by many practical examples to discover the universal 
in the concrete material of all branches of knowledge, to comprehend it from 
every stand point". * * * It must cause him as often as possible to enter 
new fields of thot, thru concepts and rules already in his possession. It must 
lay before him numerous judicious problems for solution". This drill there- 
fore must not be discontinued until the new concept has become a clear and 
strong mental possession of the pupil, a new apperceiving organ for future 
use. Mental wealth is measured by the number and importance of the avail- 
able universal truths belonging to an individual. 

The above five formal steps indicate the natural mental processes to be re- 
garded only in the presentation of new culture-material in concrete form. 
When the lesson takes the form of review, examination or excursion, it is im- 
possible to conform closely to this formal arrangement. When the new 
material is composed of well known elements, formal treatment is manifestly 
unnecessary. A historical narrative or a geography theme may add simply 



new sense-perceptions to old concepts and so become confirmatory of 
previously acquired knowledge. And material, rich in concepts, like texts 
of scripture, sacred hymns, etc., suitable for teaching to the child, cannot be 
treated in the formal method, tho in later life the man may arrive at the real 
content of these by means of these very steps. 

In summarizing Lange says, "When the teaching presents no new con- 
c r et3 culture-material for conscious appropriation, or when this material 
contains no new general elements, the formal steps cannot be followed. 
— Lange' ' s Apperception, p. 232. 

The teacher in geography, especially, must clearly understand the 
nature and purpose of each of these five steps in acquiring knowledge and 
strive for skill in their use. for again and again thruout the recitation this 
natural method must be followed whenever the new is to be brought forward. 

It is necessary, then that the lesson plan be carefully prepared that 
the teacher may know the best order of topics to be pursued in conducting 
the class from the preparation to the application of the- lesson, the legitimate 
time required for the mastery of the lesson, the difficulties that may arise 
before the pupils and the means of avoiding or meeting them. 

The pupils range of thot and experience must be known, in order to 
secure in him the right mental attitude for the reception of the truths ot the 
lesson and, a little later in the recitation, the means of a more effective 
combination of the new material with his old ideas. 

Proper emphasis must be given to the leading ideas presented to avoid 
confusion and to secure quickly a right appreciation of relation. 

Time must be allowed, especially in the presentation, for the pupil to 
think and correlate the old and new before him. 

He must be granted perfect freedom in his choice of the route by which 
he arrives at his abstraction. 

The teacher must hold himself ready, if need be, to correct a false idea 
by a careful review or perhaps a more careful presentation, to strengthen 
the weak efforts put forth by the pupil by judicious questions (only after 
the pupils" recapitulation, however) by a review of the preceding steps, or 
by a continued drill in order to fix permanently in the mind what would 
otherwise become a weak and fading apperception. It is his business to 
secure as far as possible the full clear apperception of every truth presented 
which is within the capacity of the individual pupil. 

Generalization must not be forced; it must spring from a fullness of con- 
crete experiences. Therefore in the lower grades only three steps are taken 
with the pupils; preparation, including much observation, presentation and 
application. The teacher must help them thru the combination and abstrac- 
tion required. Later they will learn to take each step in order under the 
guidance of the teacher, whose work is then still unfinished. 

To render the pupil still stronger and more independent the teacher 
must, by a many-sided aud intimate connection of everything newly learned 
with other spheres of thot. strive for the formation of rich concept groups. 



v/hich from their very nature must form powerful organs of appreception. 
"This aptitude of the concepts and general notions for apperception is 
the best gift that the school can confer on the pupil for the journey thru life." 
?, p. 244. 



14. OUTLINE OF A COURSE IN COMMON SCHOOL GEOGRAPHY. 

First Year Primary Work. 
Much may be done in this year introductory to the second year's work, 
which deals with the first acknowledged geography lessons. In the first of 
the primary years the instruction must be largely in elementary science. 
The work should be conversational in form, free from the slightest appear- 
ance of task-work and the spirit of quiet play should prevade the exercises 
wherever possible. The subject of the lesson may be something suggested 
by near .objects, or a recent incident, for this rivets the attention — the falling 
rain, a stray feather, the flowers on the desk, a bit of bright ribbon, a pretty 
smooth stone all are full of interest to the child. 

But no systematic treatment should be allowed. Arouse mental activities 
by skillful questions. Ask no questions that shall tempt a child to repeat 
hearsay. He must answer only that which he knows to be true. Throw 
yourself into the mood of the children and then question naturally. 

Sum up the experience of the class and supplement this with natural 
related ideas to a very limited extent at first, to a somewhat greater extent 
later on. 

Mutual sympathy between teacher and pupil is the basis upon which all 
good work rests in this as in all later work. 

In the first year (and second as well) the pupils are occupied very 
largely with observation and expression, first oral, later written. Here lies 
.the important task of forming right mental habits. 

Home geography is the most appropriate and the only legitmate subject 
for this informal study. By means of local examples well studied, it will aid 
later the general geography in giving a reality and and a deeper meaning to 
all geographical facts and relationships. Foreign geography is understood in 
proportion, as we comprehend our own local one.. 
In the first year then, pupils should be taught: 

1. Position. Let the pupil observe the position of single objects placed 
by the teacher; then let him place those objects in the same position:, later let 
him observe the relative position of two objects placed by the teacher and 
after he, has placed two objects let exercises with three objects, etc . follow. 
These operations should be followed by descriptions (oral of course), first of 
actions performed, and then of the relative position of objects. This may 
be made a fine preposition drill: 

(a) first in describing various parts of the room or furniture with 
reference to themselves, then with regard to someone else, 
or some other object; 



(b) by the use of right and left hands and later in the year by the 
use of cardinal points. 

2. Directions — Cardinal points: Teach the pupil to find the north point 
by standing at noon facing his own shadow, with his right hand always 
toward the east, the left toward the west. The semi-cardinal points should 
not be developed until some time later, when the teacher should show that 
northeast is really in an easterly and a northerly direction at the same time, 
hence its name, etc. 

3. Simplest observations on weather and seasonal changes. 

4. Modeling, drawing, and painting of simple forms, as fruits, etc. 

5. Plant life: 

(a) Plant seeds in sand, loam, cotton and thick brown paper, all 
to be' kept damp so that germination and growth may be ob- 
served. Incite pupils to a close watch of every change, 
observe vegetation changes out-of-doors. 

(&)'• Encourage pupils to collect leaves, flowers, seed-vessels, seeds, 
moss, etc. — not a great number alike, but of as many kinds 
as possible. Study plants 'as a whole at first; later more 
carefully, the stems, leaves, bud-cover.'ngs, leaf-foldngs, 
etc. 

6. Animal life: 

(a) Confine work to live animals only, at first, dealing with 

habits, food, homes (dens or nests), coverings, (fur, feathers 
etc.), care of young, fitness for their life (teeth for guawing, 
swimming feet, etc., etc.) 

(b) Collections of cocoons and chrysalides for. observation of 

development. 
N. B. Have no set form for the lessons. Do not determine that the 
pupils must observe certain things. Aid them to observe and then follow 
their observations. Let nature lead and discourage no attempts of the 
pupils, however crude. But encourage, each to tell all his observations, 
whenever possible. 

Second Year Primary. 

This year's work, which is more distinctively geographical, should 
include: 

1. A general review of the the first year's work in position, cardinal 
points, weather changes, plants and animals, where in each line may be 
extended somewhat. Verbal descriptions should be called for of objects 
modeled or drawn. Encourage the illustration of stories. 

2. Then may follow lessons, informal still, on sky. horizon, zenith, 
vertical and horizontal lines. 

3. Lessons, in modeling natural forms, as fruits, nuts, seed-vessels, 
animals, typical forms (as sphere, cylinder and cube). Let nothing pertain- 



ing to mathematical geography be taught to a child of six or seven years. 
The molding of hills and valleys on the sand table may be allowed. 

4. Develop the idea of a map, by molding a map of the school room, 
or by drawing on a large sheet of paper a plan of the school room. The 
pupils may prepare similar ones upon paper or slates. Encourage in every 
way the pupils to give directions concerning the placing of the representa- 
tions of all objects upon this map. This is a valuable exercise in judgment- 
training as well as in observation and comparison, and should never be 
neglected in any grade work. Use blackboard freely in lessons on plants 
and animals. 

5. Plants. Begin field lessons. Teach names of common trees and 
charactsristic leaves and barks so that pupils may recognize each. Draw the 
the trees, leaves, etc. Plant gardens for flowers, vegetables, etc. 

6. Animals. Observe birds, migration, nests, eggs, etc. Teach how 
the homes of animals are made. Lessons on forms, structure and use of 
animals. This may include some ideas of countries, where animals are 
found. Tell stories of animals, read stories of travel and of foreign countries 
to children. Use pictures largely. 

Third Year primary, 

Review the work of the two lower grades, continuing the different lines 
of observation and study. Here history may be introduced by studying the 
homes, lives and habits of different people. (Read -'Seven Little Sisters,'' 
published by Lee and Shephard, as a basis). 

Field work is a most important factor in this year's training. With the 
simple basal ideas of hills and valleys already gained by molding in sand, it is 
now possible to enter more deeply into the various forms of hills, their causes 
and effects, etc, etc. 

I. 
The following outline may serve as a suggestion in the development of 
lessons on hills. 

1. Observe and describe. 

2. Mold, first determining the scale. 

3. Draw on blackboard and on paper. 

Outline of points to be brought out in the development: 

1. Hill. 

(a) Forms' of hills (first, special forms in home locality; later, 

general forms). 

(b) Parts: top or summit; sides or slopes: bottom, foot or base. 

(c) Material of which hills are made (rocks, sand, soil). 

(d) How made? Cliffs or bluffs by stream erosion, rounded 

forms by rainfall, dunes by wind, etc. 

(e) Uses of hills: condensers, reservoirs, drainage, protection, etc. 

2. Chains ot hills: 

(a) Forms of; ridge, range, etc. 



25 

(b) Parts: (1) crest or comb; (2< passes: (3) slopes, terraces, 

hollows, valleys; (4) plateaus. 

(c) Material: rocky layers, stones, sand, soil, etc. 

(d) Causes of ranges: wrinkling, erosion, faulting, eruptions, etc. 

(e) Uses, condensers, reservoirs, drainage fertilizers of valleys, 

moderators of temperature, wind-breaks. 
3. The molding of a hill, a chain of hills, with the adjacent conntry, 
4; Observation lessons on slopes, abrupt or gradual (how much and 
where?) Gulches, spurs and divides. 

II. 

This opens the way to the development of further lessons on; brooks, 
brook-basins, etc. 

1. In these develop the ideas of: 

(a) Current, direction (down hill). 

(b) Up and down stream. 

(c) Banks, right and left. 

(d) Bed (always between two slopes). 

(e) Source (springs, etc.) 
(/) Mouth (outlet). 

(g) Tributaries (supply rivulets). 

(h) Basin, divides. 

(k) Enlargement; pond, lake with its inlets and outlets. 

(/) Change of level; waterfalls, rapids, swift currents. 

2. Mold a brook basin. 

3. Develop gradually the power of clear, accurate verbal expression: 

(a) What is meant by brook-basin, river-basin, ocean-basin? 

(b) What is meant by water-parting, divide? » 

(c) What is meant by all terms employed in brook-basin? 

(d) What is meant by valley, plain, plateau? 

4. By field-work, study the action of water on hills and slopes. 

(a) the washing down of soil, sand, pebbles, rock. 

(b) results: to hills, less high crests and less steep slopes; to val- 

leys, deep soil at foot of cliff, enriched plains. 

(c) flood plains, deltas. 

Later study the beds of streams, sandbars, gravel-shoals, pot-holes, 
effects of rocks in midchannel, of drift near shore, etc. Show how the silt is 
the real chisel in erosion rather than the water itself. 

III. 

Map of school-grounds. 

IV. 

Map of school-district (or of town) after conversations developing the 
natural features of surface, its bodies of water, etc. Follow this by carefully 



written descriptions of district or town, as minute as the pupils are able to 
make. 

Do not spend too much time mapping a large town, learning unim- 
portant names of streets, etc. The chief good sought is the power to 
interpret maps. Teach pupils to estimate distances by pacing, etc.: to use a 
scale constantly in map construction. 

V. 

Conversation lessons on occupations: farming, lumbering, mining, 
quarrying, fishing, manufacturing, commerce, etc. Teach adaption of 
surface to occupation, river-basins and fertile plains to farming; hilly country 
to grazing and manufacturing; sea-shore to fishing, boat-building, com- 
merce, etc. 

VI. 

Map of township. Mold first; then record upon paper, (1) general 
description; (2) boundaries; (3) the location of hills (or mountains), rivers and 
canals, railroads, cities and villages. 

VII. 

Map of county. Proceed as above under point VI. Later, maps of state 
and continent. 

In all map-making, keep in view constantly the aim to give faithfully, 
surface, distance, direction. Emphasize each line used. Let the tea'cher 
take a picture of some unknown place and construct a map showing proper 
relations of the objects pictured; then pupils may construct other maps from 
pictures. This exercise aids greatly in the comprehension of maps. Teach 
them to read maps, explaining the use of color, of shading, of contour lines, 
of parallels, etc., etc. — Com. of Ten, p. 221 . 

Progressive maps are helpful in strengthening the memory during this 
and the fourth year. 

VIII. 

Observation work. Lessons on heat, cold. air. and movements of air. 
changes of weather, changes in shadow lengths, etc. Later, lessons on 
steam, fog, cloud, mist, rain, snow, hail, dew and frost. Find where each is 
found, how each is formed and how one form can be converted into another. 

IX. 

Lessons on soils: loam, clay, sand, gravel, and rock. Collect specimens 
of different soils. Object lessons on common minerals, so that they can 
readily be distinguished. These lessons call for much field-work. 

X. 

Lessons on common articles of food, and also on common articles of 
clothin?. 



27 

The first twenty pages of Frye's Primary Geography deal briefly with 
the subject matter of this year's work. The teacher should supplement this 
text, to a large extent, with similar work. 

The greatest care should be given to the oral and written exercises in 
these grades. Never allow a single mistake in writing to go uncorrected. It 
is time saved in the end, for the habit of accuracy gained in lower grades 
results in a great saving of time and power thruout the school course. 

Encourage in pupils the idea of discovery; a fact discovered for himself 
becomes a part of a child's being and of infinite value. 

■ Fourth Year. 

A more systematic study of geography is now undertaken using a text- 
book. This may have been taken up in the third year as recommended by 
the Committee of Ten. Redway's Natural Elementary Geography is good 
for this grade; also Frye's Primary from page 20. Redway holds man as the 
central idea in his text; Frye emphasizes relief of the earth and clild-life. 
These texts cover about the same grade work, the third, fourth and fifth years. 
Consult these texts for systematic treatment of topics suitable for this grade. 

The work now becomes the gaining of a general survey of the earth — a 
globe-conception; an application of elementary principles, hitherto gained, to 
new regions and an examination of the descriptive text to ascertain whether 
these conclusions are correctly drawn. 

If found correct in his judgments, the pupil gains confidence in self and 
in methods of study; and he desires to study other lands even more in detail. 
Commercial relations furnish an interesting link between the child and the 
foreign land. Questions that seek to explain the interrelation of men and 
countries at once interest and lead to other questions. 

If the home locality has been studied carefully the pupils should be able 
now to apply his first notions to the foreign lands, to compare these with his 
own, noting first, likenesses, then differences in position, in direction and 
amount of slope, etc., etc. He should observe, generalize, and then prophesy 
what might be expected to exist in the new land. A study of the text and 
collateral reading follows for proof of the correctness of his conclusions. 
"This boys of nine should be able to do and have done, when rightly instruct- 
ed" says Prof. R. E. Dodge, of the Teachers College, New York City. He 
declares, ''We should aim in the first, second and third years of our geogra- 
phy work so to combine what is commonly known as nature-study with the 
elementary principles of geography as to give the child an interested love for 
the world about'him and to give him the fundamental facts so related that he 
can develop therefrom by a process of reasoning the simpler underlying prin- 
ciples of geography". "By 'the latter part of the third and surely thruout the 
fourth year the child should be able to go from a study of his home locality to 
a study of the other parts of the world, thru a process of reasoning the exact 
opposite of that followed hitherto in his work" .—Journal of School Geography 
January, 1897. 



Appeal should be constantly made to the pupil's own experience by ques- 
tions, etc. Children are slow in perceiving relations and we must be careful 
about forcing relations of objects upon them. Generalizations should be de- 
manded only after the facts have been acquired for their formation. We 
must aim to make the child think. "We cannot arbitrarily lead him up to a 
principle, which we have worked out for ourselves, and make him accept it. 
We must make him see the reasons on which we have founded the principle. 
Then he will accept it and will, later, learn to apply it". — Richard E. Dodge. 

There are other problems than those in arithmetic, and when the pupil is 
brought face to face with a difficulty, he should not be loaded with explanations 
but he should be allowed to work out his own answers. Time is nothing 
when power is growing. It is a wise teacher who knows the right time to let 
a pupil alone, when working out an answer. Education is generation of power 
and the generation of power in the natural way is the very highest economy 
possible. 

Fifth Grade 

This year should see the completion of the elementary text book. In this 
grade meteorology is still taught observationally, but the practice of recording 
carefully all facts observed, should be strictly insisted upon. 

Sixth Year to Close of Seventh Year. 

These, years are to be devoted to a' review of the world, involving a 
study of all the continents more in detail. Here must be a profounder study 
of general principles. It now becomes a more intensive than extensive 
study. 

Alex. Frye thinks that at the close of the grammar grade, pupils should 
know: 

1. Continental slopes and basins; outlines of continents, 

2. Heat-belts by latitude and elevation 

3. Belts of winds: westerlies, trades, monsoons, etc. 

4. General distribution of rain. 

5. Divisions of earth's surface; fertile and barren areas, etc, 

6. Natural flora and fauna; mining districts, etc. 

7. Races of men (general location). 

8. Fifty world centers of trade: principal capitals and historical cities. 

9. Location of countries. 

10. Proper use of atlas, gazetteer; and a taste for good books of travel. 
Meteorology is now studied by means of topographical maps, pressure and 
wind charts, isothermal charts, and many others, showing annual rainfall, 
distribution of rain etc. 



15. SUPPLEMENTARY WORK IN THE UPPER GRADES. 

Every text-book on geography presents merely an outline, which is to 
guide teacher and class in a logical study of the earth. The teacher, v/ho 
simply demands of his pupils the studying and reciting of the facts given in the 
paragraphs of an assigned lesson, is neither a true student of geography nor 
likely to arouse geographical interest in his pupils. 

It has been said, that he who would teach effectively must possess a fund 
of knowledge ten times more comprehensive than that which he expects any 
of his pupils to gain thru him. It is surely true that the successful teacher 
must be able from his own intimate acquaintance with his subject to treat the 
day's lesson in many effective ways and to suggest readily many modes of 
study to his pupils of widely differing abilities. 

Before the skeleton shall become a living glorious reality, the child must 
learn that the facts presented in the text are simply clues to multitudes of 
other facts, behind which lie the great truths of nature and of life, things he 
needs to make his own. The earlier he learns to search for the significance 
of each fact, the richer will become all future study. 

The teacher must introduce therefore, wherever practicable, supplement- 
ary matter, whose function may be to explain and illustrate the assigned les- 
son, to test the pupil's understanding of the text, or to fix more permanently 
in mind the most important portions of each lesson. This outside work may 
often take the form of explanatory matter to be searched for in various refer- 
ence books and reported upon later; of a written analysis of the lesson topics; 
of enlargements of certain portions of the text; or of schemes or tables show- 
ing the relations existing between various parts of the subject under consider- 
ation. Pupils should be frequently required to throw into outline form the 
salient points of each lesson; to draw up comparative tables on many related 
topics, as rivers and glaciers, waves and tides etc.; to illustrate paragraphs 
by original diagrams; to draft profile maps, lying in differerrt directions across 
relief maps, so as to illustrate special topographic features. Pupils should be 
taught to read the pictures that more than adorn our present texts, and fo 
construct maps showing the relative positions of all objects depicted. In 
Germany pictures are studied quite as much as the text and one of their peda- 
gogical maxims, "The picture speaks more eloquently than any description we 
can hear or read"' is no-where more frequently applied than in geography 
teaching. 

Pupils often need a little help in finding the right methods of study. If 
they are little inclined to think, study with them for a short time. Alex 
Frye gives the tollowing methods as likely to assist in training pupils to think 
for themselves. 

1st. Method. Read paragraph by paragraph; require pupils to give in 
their own words the thots in oral and written form. 

2nd. Method. Read single paragraphs. Call for questions on the sub- 



30 

ject matter read, pupils interrogating others sometimes. Allow discussion. 
This method is often helpful to backward pupils, who may ask very good 
questions. These should be written, for ease in giving and for fixing the fact 
in mind. Let no important fact pass unnoticed. The lesson may then be 
reproduced from memory. 

3rd. Method. Write a list of topics upsn the board and let the pupil re- 
cite from this. Let others question in recitation. The best mental growth is 
not so much in the study of the lesson as in the contact of mind v/ith mind 
in recitation. 

4th. Method. Study lesson, searching for questions likely to be asked. 
Let pupils express the answers in their own words. This is more difficult but 
it is the way one must study later in life. 

5th. Method. Learn to make a list of topics in the mind. From this 
list write the substance of each topic. Collect papers and redistribute to 
other pupils for supplementary facts. 

16. SUGGESTIONS ON CONDUCT OF THE RECITATION. 

"All geography work has tv/o phases; (1) descriptive or distributive, 
and (2) rational or scientific. As long as a teacher's questions all begin with 
'What" or "Where" he may be doing good and necessary work, but it is in 
the purely descriptive phase, an exercise of memory largely and a getting of 
information. When he proceeds to ask "how" or "why" his teaching passes 
into the scientific phase and he is calling upon his pupils for the exercise of 
judgment and reason, and they are acquiring wisdom and power. To know 
scientifically is to know causally, to know the reasons for things." — Chas. R. 
Dryer, in Inland Educator. 

"The teacher of geography, who has learned the art of asking sensible 
spontaneous live questions in the recitation room has gained more of the true 
method to be followed in such work than any amount of tutoring can give". 

"The success of the geography lesson depends more upon the quality and 
order of the questions than upon any one factor". — -Jour, of School Geog. 
Sept. 1897. 

Hence lessons should be planned carefully and the questions chosen, 
that will develop the subject logically. All the questions in the lesson plan 
may not be asked in the class, but every question asked will be better and 
more to the point for the previous exercise. Many new questions must be 
asked, for, if those first asked arouse thot, the answers will show individualty 
and suggest other questions calculated to bring out the ideas of the class. 

The questions should appeal to something in the pupil's own experience, 
stimulating observing faculties and offering opportunity for all, dull and 
bright, to contribute some item that is their own. An element of pleasure is 
added to the work, when the pupil finds that an advantage is gained from his 
common every-day experience. 



All questions should be clear, definite and concise, and expsessed in lan- 
guage easily comprehended by the individual questioned. Cf course the 
following classes of questions must be avoided here as every where in school 
life: (1) those which are unnecessary because illogical or too simple; (2) those 
conveying an idea of the answer desired; (3) those that demand a simple 
"yes" or "no" in reply: (4) those that are too comprehensive to be readily 
grasped; (5) those that are in any way obscure or incomplete. 

In the development of the lesson, few questions are needed generally in 
the first step, preparation; in the application they are needed for several 
reasons; (1; to test the pupil's knowledge; (2) to arouse thot; (3) to lead the 
thot into unknown fields. But there should not be too much cross-firing of 
questions. 

Let class work move on earnestly; press it judiciously. It must be thoro 
work, to be of any great value and at times a subject may be developed to 
show its far reaching relations. But avoid dawdling and dwelling upon 
trivialities, which is not thoroness. 

Allow no lesson to be given by rote; it is thoroly bad for the teacher and 
worse for the pupils, for it begets an idle teacher and unthinking pupils, whose 
weakness becomes thus more weak. 

Aim constantly to secure topical recitations. "Tell me all you can about 
this subject" is the only request needed. Since the mind is growing, we must 
not expect always finished products in recitation but we should expect to sec 
signs of progress. 

Train pupils: 

( 1 ) To narrate facts in their own language. 

(2) To make and criticise definitions. 

(3) To pass judgment upon their own and others recitations. 

(4) To illustrate their own ideas, on blackboard and on paper. 

(5) To learn how "to think upon their feet". 

(6) To maintain the position of attention thruout the recitation. 

Let the teacher remember continually" that activity and curiosity are not 
to be repressed but enlisted as allies; that one fact is to be fixed by so group- 
ing about it others related to it that it shall impress the mind vividly and 
excite and hold the interest; that the National element must be introduced con- 
stantly into the work. This is not only really the easiest method of procedure 
but facts studied apart from their causes, are meaningless. The origin of 
temperament, diversity, personality and even of genius lies hidden in the 
deeper significance of geography. — Dr. Trotter* s thot , p. 59. 

Keep constantly before you a definite goal, the gaining of a thoro com- 
prehension of a map (Geikie's idea) or something equally good. 

Never tell pupils facts that they can find for themselves. We must help 
to create a demand for a wider information and then show the pupils how they 
can meet that demand themselves. 

Frye says "Direct your energy to the greatest fault" and in the matter of 
reading all papers handed in by higher grades he thinks that one should read 



a few, call attention to their mistakes and hundreds cf others will be sooner or 
later outgrown. Glance at work apt to be carelessly done and require its re- 
writing if necessary. 

A teacher with brains will increase brains. Col. Parker says "every 
brain is more or less idiotic". A half brained person will succeed moderately 
.well, if strict routine work is demanded, but that is not teaching. 

Teaching is not mere word learning; it is a thot-getting process that shall 
train the pupil in getting thots from nature and men, and from books, their 
natural products. A recent writer on educational topics has said "A hasty 
clutching of many things is easier and pleasanter to both teacher and pupil 
than a thoro mastering of one thing, but the child who has really conquered 
one subject is he who in manhood will win the knowledge of a thousand." It 
is not so much what we teach as how we teach. 

But, if we find that strict routine work is weakening, then the methods of 
others, however good and sound, if blindly followed, must bring disaster. We 
must not be imitators but investigators, thinkers, adapters, true teachers. 
There can be no such thing as a universal "right way" in methods; there are 
only great universal truths underlying all methods, and, if we grasp and hold 
these, applying them intelligently to the subject at hand, we will learn to 
adapt ourselves instantly to the changing conditions in the class room, and 
will find that the best method for that day lies in the impromptu treatment 
begotten at the moment to meet a real need. 

Conclusion. 

"No matter how excellent the method it depends upon the teacher 
wholly to make it effective," says one educator who places methods second- 
ary to the culture and ability of the teacher. A teacher interested, in 
earnest, and full of a subject can by thot and tact find a way to impart in- 
struction in an effective manner. 

True success in this work as in any other, is commensurate with the 
amount of preparation, originality, sincerity, self-sacrifice and love of truth 
brought to it by the teacher. We must seek first a thoro preparation. "A 
teacher" says W. M. Davis, of Harvard, "should strive to be able to explain 
and illustrate every statement of the text-book: to explain and comment upon 
all the more important passages by narration and example". 

"The getting ready to teach geography is the work of a life-time and fur- 
nishes the common school teacher opportunity for the most liberal self-cul- 
ture." — Prof. E. C. Branson, of Georgia, 

The following thots from Dr. Spencer Trotter are of worth. Individual 
experience is the best indicator of methods. Learn all it can teach you. Read 
widely. Look for the significance of facts, Never lose sight of cause and 
effect. The true spirit of culture and education lies not in the amount of 
knowledge acquired but in the attitude of thot toward a subject. Cultivate 
this attitude of earnest investigation. 

Since no books or methods can take the place of direct contact with 



objects, come in contact with the great living world. Be alive to all impres- 
sions that come from the great world of humanity, and from nature. V/e 
must see and feel each fact, know it, grasp its meaning and realize its won- 
derful fitness for its office. In travel and thot, enter into the life of others. 

Be yourself — dare to think, plan and act as your better judgment 
dictates. Be what you wish the pupil to be. awake, attentive, interested 
earnest, thotful and progressive. 

Be honest and sincere. Learn to say "I do not know'' but add "I will try 
to find out'', when it may be necessary, that the pupil may catch the same 
spirit. If you should. have known it, it is wisest to frankly admit it and do 
your best to find the desired answer. If you can answer his question, do so, 
even if, he may not always understand the answer. It will show him the 
need of growth. The teacher, who pretends to know more than he does is a 
failure. Love of truth is fundamental to all true progress in science. 

Be unselfish — Self is always the enemy of success. Shakespere says 
"Think of yourself last", and Phillip Brooks, "Efface yourself, if you would 
have your work stand". True success in any branch of teaching demands 
self-consecration. Are the pupils inattentive and unappreciative? Still give 
of yourself. • They are worthy of your best, which is given not to what they 
now are, but to the men and women that they shall be. They deserve more 
than a knowledge of geography; they need an insight' into life. A writer has 
said "Never give less than your best — and remember that your best is always 
yourself". Goethe says those who give most get most — only another version 
of the Bible truth. 

Be searching ever for new truths. Col. F. W. Parker says "There is but 
one thing to educate, and that is motive, and the strongest of all motives is 
the divine tendency in the human soul to give oneself to others". 

To do this, study yourself, your pupil and your subject till you know 
some of the truth. 

Make the truths underlying all right methods your own. and then let 
truth and nature lead you. 

Teach with the unwavering aim that geography shall give the pupil a 
better, nobler, truer view of the world, of life and of his own moral worth. 

Then shall come to you a true method that shall make you free, indeed, 
and shall give to your pupils a still wider freedom, their rightful heritage. 



(fkii&mg {Irutriplf in -Nature §>tu2i£. 

Dr. E. G. Howe gives as the basts of a long and successful experience 
in elementary science work the following principles: 

l 1. A child can be lead to any height, if the steps are made short enough. 

2. The mental powers must have exercise to grow. 

3. The senses are capable of cultivation and will then increase our 
' 'correspondences". 

4. The mind derives its ideas from the perceptions of the sence. 

5. Ideas (i. e. suggestions) will manifest themselves in corresponding 
words and actions, or as "seed-thoughts" develop into new and original dis- 
coveries and inventions. 

6. Feeding — Childhood is the time to grow and fill up, in this stage the 
child should see and handle. 

7. Assimilation — In youth the more mature brain is able to act upon the 
gathered material of childhood, systematize, correlate,' reason and deduce. 
Pupils should be guided to experiment and observation. 

8. Reproduction — Maturity (as to its character) will be largely based on 
the resultants of: 

(a) the accumulations of the child; 
(c) the deductions of the youth. 
Pupils should now be led to subjects involving generalizations. 

^9. The value of first impressions is so great, that every care should be 
exercised tc make them clear and accurate. 

-10. To be fixed, impressions must be repeated. 

11. Things must be seen frcm different stand-points and in varied 
relations. Let the repeating involve this and be a new view as well as a 
review. 

12. No subject is so profound but its central truths can be taught to 
very small children. 

13. These "central truths" will become "seed thoughts" developing 
naturally with the child's growth and serving as centers of attraction for 
related facts. 

14. Work from the simplest, the general — and that within the child's ex- 
perience — to the complex, particular and unknown or unobserved. 

15. Tell nothing, which can be taught in any other way. Do nothing 
for the child that he can do for himself. 

Hence in the study of nature outlined in Dr. Howe's system, he en- 
deavors to: 



35 

(1) Get the child to see and handle a wisely chosen and comprehensive 
series of stones, plants and animals. 

(2) Lead to closer observation and thus increase his acquaintance. 

(3) Cultivate the powers of decisi'on and still further widen the range of 
his acquaintance. 

(4) Systematize and observe the relation of things to each other. 

Coordinate with "Dr. E. G. Howe", Etc. 

Hints to be observed in giving the lesson: 

(1) "Have a reason' clearly in mind for giving every lesson. Seek for 
this in the relation of the subject to the child. 

(2) Have a reason clearly in mind for the way in which the lesson is 
presented. Seek for this in the study of the laws which govern the growth of the 
child. 

(3) Plan only for such work as the pupils can do for themselves, or, at 
least, take the leading part in doing. 

(4) Place the child directly in contact with nature under normal conditions. 
i/"(5t Begin with something which is really a part of the pupil's ex- 
perience — not with something which you have to tell. 

(6) Accept, as good, only such results as indicate honesty ot purpose 
growth of mind. 

(7) .Be faithful and bide your time". 

— Dean W. S. Jackman, (University of Chicago) in "Nature Study" p. 28. 

Systematic Science Teaching, pp. 1-2. 

A study of the child's spontaneities teaches us that we must study with 
him things of life and action; things that he loves naturally: that we must not 
repress thotlessly his outgoing of sympathy for all created things. We must 
remember his love for creating and must, therefore, train his riotous imag- 
ination, not repress it, for it is to be of untold value later. 

We should aim to secure within walls the same freedom and interest that 
he feels outside of school walls. 

We must be very slow in condemming a child's way of investigating. 
Follow his lead rather, so long as he is working out an idea, however crude. 
Our system of education may have misled us and we often need to return to 
nature's true way and learn from the little child. 

We must avoid early specialization, as it tends to narrow the child's first 
ideas of each great science. 

We must not expect too large results from each day's work in the lower 
grades. 

We must teach the pupil to seek for facts first, but only as clues to 
truths, which are eternal, 

We must be sure to teach the child to question old mother Nature and to 
wait for her answers. This takes time but the child always has time to 
receive right impressions. "He has all the time there is". Hurry is always 
fatal in Nature Study. Froebel tells us that we should not always answer the 



36 

child's question at once and directly but as soon as he has gathered sufficient 
strength and experience furnish him with the means to find out the answers. 

Dr. Clifton F. Hodge says "The very breath of life for a healthy vigorous 
child is original investigation; and to Stuff the memory faster than the power 
to think and the will to do are developed, is the quickest road to mental 
indolence. * * Every question is a prize, a living, bursting bud: be careful 
of it. Make the most and the best of it. If the children are really doing some- 
thing, there will be no end of questions with real purpose in them". The 
teacher must not tell what he knows; he must lead the child to that point where he 
can find out for himself. If the question is one that no one knows anything 
about leave it with them for the coming of the answer, for our public education 
should develop in the pupil what he needs most, Individual initiative, power 
to think and do — resource. "If the question is too hard to answer in a day 
or a week or a year, so much the better. If it be one worth while to work at 
for a lifetime, so much the better. You may have given a life work, the 
highest prize a teacher can ever give a pupil". — Dr. C. F. Hodge, in Nature 
Study and Life, pp J 43-1 44. 

Course of Study. 

Many educators recommend a spiral course, treating in each cycle, 
more or less of the four principal aspects of nature. This spiral ascends from 
the lowest grade in the primary school to the close of the high school, 
having regard to the after work of the colleges. Such a course shows the 
natural inter-dependences of the natural sciences. 

Dr. Howe's course is such a spiral, treating in each cycle, in varying 
order: first, Stars and Earth; second. Mineral? and Rocks; third,. Plants: 
fourth, Animals; adapted in each cycle to more advanced pupils. 

Plants are studied first and are taken up every fall term, and in certain 
years, they are studied also in the spring weeks. 

Animals are also reserved for spring and fall work. 

Minerals and Rocks occupy a part of the winter months leaving others 
for the study of Earth and Sky. 

There are many admirable points in Dr. Howe's system and it has stood 
successfully the tests of nearly twenty years. 

Every year's work develops the imaginative faculties and encourages 
conversation concerning all objects seen or handled — stimulates and pro- 
motes a love for reading and develops self-control in care of specimens, 
(especially those in form of fruit) in care of minerals, in kindness tc animals. 
in neatness of notes and drawings. It calls for Character-study in animals 
and in children, honesty in care of specimens, exactness and thoroness in 
experimenting. It brings about an unfolding of great subjects; a revelation of 
the wonderful and sublime in nature and then leads to the power and wisdom 
of the Creator and the majesty and brotherhood of man. It results in a 
growing reverence and love for Him who creates and keeps his handiwork in 
marvellous ways. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
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